Managing Azure Reserved Instances with Centilytics

Reserved Instances, also known as RIs have been responsible for saving up to 72% of your costs as compared to pay-as-you-go prices. When combined with Azure Hybrid Benefit, the savings increase to 82%.

Azure RIs can be purchased for a time period of either one year or three years and can be set up in accordance with any virtual machine type and in any Azure region. Microsoft also allows you to exchange or cancel your purchase of RIs at any time for a fitting refund.

RI and pay-as-you-go prices, when in a combination, tend to decrease the total cost at large through variable workloads. Budget strategies could be discovered and investments could be calculated for future easily as there is only a single upfront payment to be made. Moreover, RIs provide flexibility according to the business changes as they can be easily exchanged or cancelled.

RI planning, however, can be a tad surprising. Questions like ‘What type of RI?’, ‘When to make an RI purchase?’, ‘What term to commit to while purchasing RI?’, and ‘Is there a sure-shot guarantee that you will save money?’ often makes users reluctant towards the changes which can prove to be beneficial for their future budgeting.

How to escape this overwhelming situation!

The major goal of Centilytics is to help you optimize your cloud expenditure in the most efficient manner. The Centilytics RI Planner for that matter generates recommendations so as to create a crystal-clear picture of which instances are worth keeping and which you should let go off or do not make further reservations for.

Certain RIs help to save even more when reserved for a longer span. Centilytics also eases the pain of segregating the instances which should be reserved for a single year from those which should be reserved for a time period of three years. The Azure RI recommendations, based on your past usage, bring about transparency in your savings. It generates recommendations relating to which instances should be reserved for three years, which should be reserved for only one year and how much you will be saving against your current instances.